In Holy Cross Cemetery in Basking Ridge, N.J., stands an unusual gravestone with an engraved baseball and bat. It’s a memorial to John F. Gilmore (1907-1951), a ballplayer who died way too young.
Gilmore was born in New York City and moved to Peapack-Gladstone with his parents as a child. He played football for Bernards High during the 1920s and graduated in 1926.
Gilmore is best remembered as a pitcher for the Gladpack Athletic Club baseball team. Gilmore was a part of the Gladpack teams that won Inter-County League championships in 1936 and 1938. In 1940, he was working as a truck driver. He died at Somerset Hospital in Somerville at age 44 after a long illness.
See: Biographical Record.
